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Message |
    
Michael_kelly (Michael_kelly)
Username: Michael_kelly
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 207.188.64.63
| | Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 05:18 pm: | |
Okay, just watched this film. It's sweet and nostalgic. Heartfelt. I really liked it. Guess I'm just getting old and sentimental.
From my blog:
Last night we watched Lars and the Real Girl. The basic conceit (and I'm not giving anything away here) is that a lonely 27-year-old man in a small midwestern town sends away for a full-size "love" doll. The town's folk react rather oddly, to say the least, but not quite in the manner you'd expect.
I'll admit, the film may be a bit too earnest for itself. But, really, once you've accepted the conceit and suspended your disbelief (if you can, and I did) there's a real gem of a film deep down inside. It's a small exploration of mental illness, small town loneliness, and rifts of the past that bubble up. Really good stuff. A quiet film that I thoroughly enjoyed. Ryan Gosling is, as always, excellent. I've a feeling, though, that some may not get past the basic premise. That'd be a shame. It's worth the rental. |
Griff (Griff)
Username: Griff
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.100
| | Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 05:49 pm: | |
"small town loneliness"
I live in a small village in a National Park.
I travel just under 100 miles every day to work in Cardiff. |
Griff (Griff)
Username: Griff
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.100
| | Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 05:50 pm: | |
I think I can hear the sound of banjos drifting down from the forest. |
Huw (Huw)
Username: Huw
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 218.168.180.51
| | Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 06:51 pm: | |
Brecon Beacons, Griff? |
Griff (Griff)
Username: Griff
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 172.141.243.37
| | Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 07:22 pm: | |
Yes, Huw.
There's a 15C fortified farmhouse with arrow slits and dried moat opposite my house. It used to be the local court in medieval times.
There is also a small circle of standing stones not far from the village. It's a very creepy area.
GoogleEarth "old Trecastle road" and it's on the more remote part, GE also has a picture of it. |
Griff (Griff)
Username: Griff
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 172.141.243.37
| | Posted on Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 09:21 pm: | |
Lovecraft was right - nothing is quite as terrifying as a deserted farmhouse.
A group of us used to go hiking in our teens. During the early summer holidays just before going up to University, and when our paths and lives would split, we stumbled through wide empty fields and up through forested hills to find a single story stone farmhouse embedded partly in the hill. Simply deserted.
The roof didn't have slates but thick slabs of stone covered in moss. There was a crude long stone trough outside filled with murky water and slime.
There were also the biggest trees I'd every seen around it in a long line climbing up a length of the mountain, and I mean BIG, freakishly big, unsettlingly big. One had fallen over and the diameter was simply incredible.
We didn't go into the farmhouse but climbed the mountain; at the top of it through the trees was a barn with a creaking door swinging open and shut in the breeze. Inside was covered in crude occult symbols and half a rotting dead sheep lay on the floor.
We looked at it all, taking care not to enter the shed. It was an unspoken sense that it would be the wrong thing to do, like with the farmhouse. We calmly decided it would be best to leave. Heading back to that clearing was sobering. We ignored the farmhouse, the trees were outlandishly big and took our attention. We wordlessly headed back to the road, when we got within sight of the car all pretence of calmness left us and we rushed to it.
This happened ten years ago and I will never forget it. |
Griff (Griff)
Username: Griff
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.100
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 04:02 pm: | |
This really did happen. |
Michael_kelly (Michael_kelly)
Username: Michael_kelly
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 207.188.88.80
| | Posted on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 11:41 pm: | |
Griff,
I googled Trecastle. Wow. It seems both tranquil and sinister all at once. I'm jealous, actually. |
Griff (Griff)
Username: Griff
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.100
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 - 05:16 pm: | |
There's a sign on a boulder in the next village up that simply says "last shop for 28 miles" |
Adriana (Adriana)
Username: Adriana
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 76.91.168.218
| | Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 10:44 am: | |
I've been wondering if I should rent it, thanks for the review, Michael.
 |
Adriana (Adriana)
Username: Adriana
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 76.91.168.218
| | Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 10:46 am: | |
Gosh Griff, unsettling story... do you have a link, Michael???
brrr..... |
Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.161.253.183
| | Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 10:47 am: | |
Griff; read my stuff on bigfoot, especially the last two links. I think these things are connected. |
Griff (Griff)
Username: Griff
Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.93.21.100
| | Posted on Thursday, April 24, 2008 - 01:52 pm: | |
@ Adriana
If you have the free program GoogleEarth simply type "Old Trecastle Road". It will take you there and also give you a photo of it.
@ Tony
Will read it. |